


The new Recruit

by obviously_bored



Category: Captain America (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Endgame AU, M/M, Post-Endgame, canon? i don't know her, non-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-19 04:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22038760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obviously_bored/pseuds/obviously_bored
Summary: Steve Rogers gets a phone call in the middle of the night. Fury has a job for him.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 33





	The new Recruit

**Author's Note:**

> When he was fighting Thanos, Steve had to pay a great price: Thanos used the Infinity Stones to de-serum Steve. After the events of Endgame, Steve is forced to retire, but he is not unhappy about it.

_Bzzz_ , _Bzzz_. The phone was buzzing on his night stand. Steve reached out for his phone and held it to his face to see, who was calling him in the middle of the night. He squinted at the screen, but after a moment his eyes adjusted to the brightness. Steve sighed as he recognized the name on his phone but answered the called nevertheless.

“Fury, do you know what time it is?” Steve asked with a low voice, careful not to wake up Bucky, who was sleeping next to him.  
“Rogers, I have a job for you!”, Fury stated, without acknowledging Steve’s question.

Steve sat up, rubbed his eyes with his left hand, while holding the phone to his ear with the other hand, and let his feet fall to the sides of the bed. These days, his body felt a lot heavier, even though he weighed half as much as before. When the serum was forced out of his body, he did not only lose muscle mass and shrank down by about a foot, all those health issues he almost forgot came back at once. He used to be able to jog a half marathon before breakfast, now he could barely get out of bed without his body pulling him back down. Things weren’t as bad as they used to be, though. Science has made large improvements over the last eight decades, including medicine. Most of his aches and pains have become manageable, especially his heart condition has immensely improved – compared to the 1940s. But despite all of these advantages, he still wasn’t _healthy_.

“You’re joking, right?” Steve murmured into the phone, while he quietly got up and tiptoed into the bathroom. Quietly, he closed the door behind him, before he addressed Fury again. “I’m out. I can’t come back. You know that!”  
“I’m not asking you to jump out of airplanes or diffuse a bomb. The job I have for you is much more challenging.”

Steve sighed. “What kind of a job are we talking about?”  
“I need you to talk to Spiderman.”  
“ _What_?”  
“Spiderman. Peter Parker. You dropped a container on him in Germany.”  
“I know who Spiderman is. And it wasn’t a container. It was – never mind. Why do you want me to talk to him?”  
“He doesn’t want to be an Avenger.” Steve could hear the disappointment in Fury’s voice.  
“He doesn’t… wait. THAT’S your PROBLEM? That a KID doesn’t want to work for you? For fucks sake, Fury, just leave him alone.” Steve was now pacing up and down in the bathroom, trying to contain his anger.  
“Listen, Rogers, you probably haven’t noticed because you’re too busy enjoying your retirement with Barnes, but we’re a bit short-staffed at the moment. I need all the heroes I can get. Even if it’s a teenage boy.”  
“You know, that sounds like you have a recruitment problem. Have you tried looking for people who – I don’t know – aren’t in school anymore?”  
“I will keep that in mind.”, Fury returned drily. “Until then, I could really use Parker’s help. But he doesn’t answer my calls. Maybe you have more luck with the kid.”  
Steve shook his head. “This is a terrible idea.”  
“I didn’t want to bring it up, but you owe me one.”  
“Wha- What for?”  
“For that time your boyfriend tried to kill me.”  
Steve stopped pacing and took a deep breath. He knew Fury didn’t mean it like he said, or did he? Fury knew Bucky was under HYDRA’s control. Fury knew Bucky wasn’t responsible for his actions. But Steve couldn’t help feeling responsible for what happened. Even after almost 80 years, he still blamed himself for not looking for Bucky after he fell off the train. Maybe he did owe Fury. Or maybe Fury knew Steve just a little too well. “Fine. I’ll talk to him.”  
“Good.”  
“But if he doesn’t want to join the Avengers I won’t push it.”  
“Whatever. Just talk to him.”

There was a pause. Steve wondered, why Fury didn’t end the call. He decided to break the silence. “Was it really necessary to call me for that in the middle of the night? Couldn’t you have waited until tomorrow morning.”  
“Not really. Parker goes on a class trip tomorrow. To Europe. His flight goes 0925. You have to talk to him before he leaves. I’ll send you the details.”  
“And you couldn’t have asked me to talk to him 24 hours ago?”  
“24 hours ago, I didn’t know that I would need him. Good luck.”

With that, Fury disconnected the call. Steve stared at his phone. Fury’s message lit up the screen of his phone. Peter’s class would take the bus to the airport – departing from his school 0715. Steve decided that it would be best to talk to the kid, before he was on his way to the airport. That meant that Steve had to be in Queens before 7am. He checked the time. 2.10am. He sighed. Only a few more hours of sleep. A few months ago, he would have shrugged it off, but now he felt like he was being robbed. Sleep had suddenly become a very important factor in his life and he wasn’t happy to cut it short.  
He set the alarm in his phone and quietly went back to bed. Bucky hadn’t moved an inch since he left, but his uneven breathing let Steve know that Bucky was awake. He climbed back into bed. “Sorry about that. Go back to sleep.” Steve said, before pressing a kiss on Bucky’s temple.

“Wha-di-fuy-wa?”, Bucky mumbled, his face buried into his pillow.  
“He wants me to help recruiting for the Avengers.”  
“Ugh… No”  
“No?”  
“No Avengers talk right now.” Bucky wrapped his arm around Steve’s torso and pulled him closer – effortlessly - and pressed his face between Steve’s neck and shoulder. “Good night.”  
“Good night, Bucky.”  
\------------------  
The bus was already standing at the schoolyard when Steve parked his car on the parking lot across the street. He got out of the car and watched the kids gathering in front of the bus with their luggage. Steve didn’t have to wait long, when he saw Peter arrive on the school ground, talking to a friend. He approached to two teenagers, who didn’t notice him before.

“Peter Parker?”, Steve asked, even though he knew exactly who he was talking to. Peter and his friend turned towards Steve, eyeing him up and down for a second, until recognition hit the two boys, causing them to stare wide eyed at the now much smaller man.  
“Oh my god, you’re-“ Peter’s friend started, but Steve signaled him not to finish the sentence.  
“Wow, this is- such an honor! I’m Ned, by the way!” the kid said, extending a hand. Steve shook the kid’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Ned. Do you mind if I talk to your friend here for a moment?”  
“Sure”, Ned replied, slapping Peter’s shoulder with pride. Peter, who had been looking back and forth between the former Captain America and his best friend, eyes wide open, mouth agape, unable to speak until Steve addressed him again.  
“Peter, do you have a moment?”  
“Yes, yes of course” Peter exclaimed, his voice a pitch too high.  
Steve and Peter walked a few feet, until they were out of earshot from the people at the bus.  
“Did Fury send you?” Peter asked without hesitation.  
Steve nodded, “Is it that obvious?”  
“Look, I know I shouldn’t have ghosted Fury, Happy already lectured me on that. But whatever it is that Fury wants from me, I can’t. See?” he motioned towards the bus and his classmates, “we’re on our way to Europe, and there’s this girl…”  
“I understand”  
“I- you- what?”  
“Honestly? I didn’t want to be here, either. Go on your class trip, have fun.”  
“I… I don’t understand…” Peter was visibly confused.  
“Fury wants you to be an Avenger. But I think you should just be a teenager. I’m only here because Fury can be very… persuasive.”  
“And how will Fury react?”  
“I’ll handle Fury, you go on your class trip.”  
Peter sighed. “No, that’s not fair. You shouldn’t have to deal with Fury, you’re retired. I’ll talk to Fury.”  
“And what are you going to tell him?”  
“I don’t know.”, Peter shrugged. “That I can’t do what he wants me to do?”  
“Do you even know what he wants you to do?”  
“I guess, he wants me to be the next Iron Man. Or-“ he gestured towards Steve.  
Steve shook his head. “That’s not going to happen.”  
“Of course not.”, Peter replied, apparently hurt by Steve words.  
“What I was trying to say”, Steve continued, “is that you are neither me nor Tony. You are not like us. You are you. You can’t make the same decisions that I have made, you can’t make the same decisions Tony made and, looking back at everything we’ve done the past ten years, that’s a good thing. We’ve made a lot of mistakes. You won’t make the same mistakes we have. I believe you can be better than we have ever been.”  
Peter stared at him in disbelief. “Thank you, Mr. Rogers, but I’m not- I’m not as great as you think.”

Steve gave Peter one of his rare smiles. “I read your file. I know what you did on the evening of your Homecoming Ball. Instead of partying with your friends you risked your life to do what’s right. I know you only ended up on that space ship because you saw that Tony was in trouble and you jumped to his side, without thinking twice. I think you’re the type of person who will choose what is right, never what is easy. That’s what makes you special, that’s what makes you a hero. Not your powers. Not your suit. Peter Parker is the real hero.”

Peter blushed, he wasn’t expecting such high praise from someone like Steve Rogers. “The thing is, right now I just want to be the friendly neighborhood spider. That’s all.” Peter explained subdued.  
“Then that’s what you should do. The Avengers can wait.”  
Peter nodded, then shook his head, and sighed. “But what if they can’t wait. If Fury keeps calling, and even sends you after me, it must be important. What if something terrible happens because I didn’t answer Fury calls?”  
“Whatever happens is not your responsibility. You are only responsible for your own actions, not for whatever happens somewhere in the world.”  
“But what if the terrible thing somewhere happens because I wasn’t there? What if I could stop it? Doesn’t that make it my responsibility?”

Steve was truly amazed by Peter. How did Tony find this kid? He was nothing like Tony, but in a way he was a lot like – himself. Upon that realization Steve felt oddly proud, but also concerned.

“I think you have your answer”, Steve said. “I think you know exactly what you’re going to do.”  
“I guess, I’m going to call Fury back”  
“Just do me a favor, Peter: Don’t take any uncalculated risks, and always come back home in one piece.”  
“I promise. Thank you, Mr. Ro- Steve.”

Steve extended his hand, and Peter shook it excitedly.  
“Oh, about Germany a couple of years ago…” Peter started.  
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t think things would escalate like that. I don’t think Tony expected that either.”  
“I was gonna apologize for attacking you without having all the facts.”  
Steve shook his head. “You did nothing wrong, Peter.”

They were interrupted by Peter’s teacher yelling his name, as he was counting the students.  
“Oh, I gotta go. Thanks for the pep-talk.”  
Steve smiled. “Enjoy your class trip.”

Peter ran over to his classmates, where he was immediately interrogated by Ned. As Steve watched Peter get on the bus, the thought to himself: _you’re gonna do great things, kid_.

**Author's Note:**

> When you're writing a character, who is really good at delivering motivational speeches but you are not... Well, I tried. *shrugs*


End file.
